Can the popular film maker Mel Gibson now claim some credit for having triggered the beatification of a saint?Catholic News Service reports today the Vatican "has confirmed that Pope John Paul II plans to beatify a controversial 19th-century nun whose visions helped inspire Mel Gibson to make the movie 'The Passion of the Christ'."

"German Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich will be proclaimed 'blessed' along with four others Oct. 3 in a Mass at the Vatican, officials at the Congregation for Saints' Causes told Catholic News Service June 16. Beatification is a major step toward sainthood."

The news agency also reports that Jewish leaders have criticized the planned beatification, saying it would harm Christian-Jewish relations. They said Sister Emmerich's published visions are anti-Semitic in their negative portrayal of Jews.

Also included in the news report is further commentary on the background to her being chosen for beatification and the news that "among the others the pope will beatify during the Oct. 3 Mass is Emperor Charles I, the last ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, who died in 1922. The Vatican believes his reign was inspired by the social teaching of the church."